THE U.S. dollar increased against most other major currencies Friday as the country’s non-farm jobs report came out better than expected.

U.S. total non-farm payroll employment increased by 200,000 in January, beating market consensus of 175,000 and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose by nine cents to US$26.74, following an 11-cent gain in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 75 cents, or 2.9 percent.

“Average hourly earnings rose the most since a 2.9-percent rise in June 2009, but have been so volatile in the past 12 months. It’s not yet possible to determine a pattern of wage pressures,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

“The unemployment rate has stabilized at 4.1 percent for now, but we expect it will drop again in the months ahead,” he added.

U.S. factory orders also came out positive. New orders for manufactured goods in December increased US$8.5 billion or 1.7 percent to US$498.2 billion, also above market estimates, the Commerce Department announced Friday.

Meanwhile, the final reading of the consumer sentiment for January came in at 95.7, higher than previous month’s reading of 94.4, said the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.58 percent at 89.182 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to US$1.2452 from US$1.2516 in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to US$1.4118 from US$1.4270 in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to US$0.7926 from US$0.8040.(Xinhua)